We often think of art as having its meaning baked into it by the artist, of having a shape entirely formed by intent, and that the role of the audience is to simply partake of that message. The meaning of art isn’t really intrinsic to its form, though: it is contextual, interpreted, a relationship between the artist and audience. The consumer, by defining the boundaries and methodologies of their consumption, define their final experience as much or more than the artist does. The act of interpretation is thus  not a secondary experience to the appreciation of art, not a self-indulgent path for critics and academics, but the core of the experience. Those who wish to write essays and reviews expanding and expounding upon those interpretations aren’t engaging in a fundamentally different method of appreciation than the ‘common’ consumer, but merely formalizing and notating their experiences.

To a certain extent we…